Tendering opened doors to export market

Finnpilot Pilotage, which manages the provision of pilotage services and other duties related to the safety of water traffic and supporting duties in Finland, arranges competitive biddings for special products and services related to its operations. These products include pilot vessels, a variety of transport services and vessel maintenance services, among others. Hansel has been involved in the implementation of several of Finnpilot’s own tendering processes over the years.

One of the most recent procurement projects carried out by Finnpilot had the slightly cryptic name of “Vessel telematics and analysis service”. The procurement project started with the need to collect information on pilot vessels and their operation to further develop operating methods and boost the use of Finnpilot’s fleet. The core of the service is a system that collects positioning, machinery and other data from the vessels in almost real time and creates reports based on this data. The collected data can be used to assess tasks performed, use of the vessels, fuel consumption and a variety of factors that influence the occupational health and safety of the crews under different conditions and with different propulsion powers.

Everybody benefits from open development

During a market survey before the procurement process, it was detected that there was no ready-made IoT-based fleet management system on the market that could be used for smaller vessels. Finnpilot determined that creating a system of its own would not be wise, as the company would not be able to commercialise the system due to competition neutrality issues. They wanted to use the procurement process to find a partner that would be ready to develop a fleet IoT system to be offered as SaaS.

Finnpilot’s fleet, consisting of several dozen vessels, would be a reference that the service provider could use when acquiring new customers. From the very start, the goal was to find a supplier that would be able to find an export market for its marine IoT service. This way, the needs, ideas and financial input of other customers would support development of the service and offer Finnpilot new opportunities to develop the operation of its fleet. An open tendering process was arranged. The winner was a startup that had already received support from the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology (Tekes) for its fleet IoT development, which increased the export-centredness of its operations.

Most parts of the system were installed at the end of 2017, and the service has been taken into operational use. Finnpilot is very satisfied with both Hansel’s support in the realisation of the challenging procurement process and the new service that was obtained. The export potential of the service is considered to be fairly high. The procurement is a good example of what innovative thinking and a procurement process that supports innovation can achieve both for the procurement unit and a company that seeks new international business.